Naples – Part 2

Wednesday, July 27

We navigated from the Naples central bus station to our B&B. We had purposely booked a place close to the central bus/train station knowing that we’d be using this second visit to Naples as more of a transit layover.

Reviews for B&B Maryflower said it was in a grimy location but that the apartment itself was nice. These were accurate. We managed to luckily get into the apartment building, and up four flights of stairs. Then someone eventually came out into the hall to let us in. But once we got into the apartment itself it was so cold from the AC that we loved it and wanted to stay there all day.

We needed to eat something so we set out to find some pizza. The first place we tried was absolutely swarming with tourists so we went to the next. The next was also too busy for us. So we opted to go back to the oldest pizzeria, Port’Alba.

We got the Primavera (spring) which had red and yellow tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, black olives, basil, and anchovies. It was very good. We also got a couple of Aperol spritzes and took our time relaxing and enjoying the food.

Eventually our FOMO got the best of us and we decided to squeeze in the Anthropological Museum that afternoon. It was pricey – 32 Euro for 2 people – and a few of the exhibits we had wanted to see were closed, but it was a huge museum with lots to see and we ended up spending almost 3 hours there.

The museum was essentially a repository of everything that had been unearthed from Pompeii, Herculaneum (another Vesuvius victim), and other archeological sites in the area. We were most impressed with the mosaics pulled from Pompeii as many of them were as good as paintings, or better, and from 1st century CE.

We also liked all the rooms with massive statues as many of them are greek gods. We played ‘guess the god’ before reading the placard and did pretty good.

On the walk back to our B&B we got some mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, crackers, and wine to make our own snack/dinner in the comfort of our very air conditioned apartment.

Thursday, July 28

The last things on our Naples ‘to see’ list were riding the funicular to the top of a mountain to see St Elmo Castle and the views, and to check out the Spanish Quarter.

We got ‘breakfast’ at the café on the corner using coupons given to us by the B&B. This method had worked really well in Rome, but not as well here. When Carl showed the staff person our coupon and she said ‘2 chocolate croissants??’ Realizing that probably all Americans love chocolate croissants like I do, we figured this was a standard order. We said ‘sure’ and went to sit outside.

They brought two ‘croissants’ out that were like bread buns and not very good. They had cut them in half and filled them with Nutella, which was the best part. I went inside and asked for some coffee too (Please!) and they seemed surprised by this order. It was nice to get ‘breakfast’ included in the room price but we were not impressed.

We walked through the historic center to the Spanish Quarter. We had been through this area many times already but we still enjoyed looking at all the little shops and dodging the motorbikes that zoomed down the small, cobbled streets.

There’s a bright red coral that grows on the rocks in southern Italy and it fills all the jewelry shops in Naples. Both of my temporary engagement rings had broken so it seemed like a nice opportunity to get a red coral ring as something unique to remember our time in Italy.

We lingered in front of one shop and an old man came out and gestured in Italian to explain to us what some of the charm bracelet charms meant (basically they all ward off the evil eye). I found a cheap, simple, yet elegant red and silver ring and asked to try it on. We went inside and when it fit perfectly I took that as a sign and got it.

Then we wandered to the Spanish Quarter and then to the funicular station. The funicular is very cute and old and seems to be used by the locals pretty regularly as a way of not having to walk up and down the big hill. We got it all the way to the top and then followed a family of tourists to the entrance of Castel Sant’Elmo.

It was 5 Euro each to get in which seemed pricey to us but we had come all that way so we did it. The castle isn’t the most beautiful thing but the views from it were worth it. We walked up and up and up on ramps into the castle and then within it before reaching a top terrace.

At the top we stood at the highest point in Naples and could see down to the whole city, the waterfront, the bay, and (in the hazy distance) Capri island and Mt Vesuvius. Some of the windows at the top acted like medieval AC units because they concentrated the air currents and created a cool breeze. We took our time looking out through these breezy spots.

At the top are also some modern art galleries which weren’t phenomenal but did provide a nice break from all the really old art and artifacts we had been looking at for weeks.

We hiked back down and took a different funicular line back to the heart of the Spanish Quarter. We found a casual seafood restaurant and got a table right next to the AC just before they got too busy. We ordered a seafood sampler appetizer and a Sorrento style gnocchi. The food was nice but a bit overpriced.

Feeling full, hot, and tired, we walked back through the crazy historic center streets to our B&B. We blasted the AC and took a nap. That evening we watched an Italian movie on Netflix called, “The Hand of God” about a family in Naples. It was a little weird and artsy, but we liked it. It was fun to recognize the place names and foods that we had learned on our trip so far.